The Quest for World Citizenship & Effective Global Governance A Short History of World Federalism
Founding & Board Member of CUNCR
The Charter of the United Nations Organisation begins with the words: “We, the peoples…”. However, the peoples are not (yet) directly represented; the executive powers or governments of nation states are. A call for reform of the UN, if not democratic legitimation of the world organisation, is increasingly heard in many lands, even though the victor states of World War Two which permanently sit at the helm of the UN Security Council have not yet agreed, in spite of Article 103c of the UN Charter, to call in a UN Reform Conference.
In the thirties and during World War Two, several politicians and statesmen as well intellectuals proposed true community if not federalist measures for world governance, while condemning nationalism of Nazi Germany, Italian fascism and Japanese military imperialism. Campaign for World Government is an American organisation which was formed in 1937. In 1938, Clarence Streit proposed in the USA, in a book Union Now ! that a Federation of Democracies be formed. His thesis made a great number of adepts on both sides of the Atlantic and eventually gave birth to two independent organisations in America and in Britain, called Federal Union.
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By: Wouter Veening